


Intuition, or a lack thereof

by ElnaK



Category: Marvel 616
Genre: Empyre (Marvel) #3, Facts, Gen, instincts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28504779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElnaK/pseuds/ElnaK
Summary: Reed and Tony work together, just the two of them, as the others went against the Cotati and managed - as much as possible - the Kree-Skrull Alliance.When Tony leaves the lab, disgusted with himself for not having seen it coming, Reed thinks - and then, goes to find his friend.
Relationships: Reed Richards & Tony Stark, Reed Richards/Susan Storm (mentioned), Rumiko Fujikawa/Tony Stark (mentioned)
Kudos: 3





	Intuition, or a lack thereof

It had been five minutes and thirteen seconds since Tony left.

Reed had, as always, continued working after that – while thinking about Sue, Ben, Johnny, Val and Franklin, of course, not too much, just enough, in between two blinks of his eyes.

And then.

Then he'd thought: _I was there, and I didn't._

The words he'd just told Tony. True words, on top of that. Reed had been there, and he hadn't seen it coming either. As he'd told Tony: everything had led them to the logical conclusion.

Fact: the Cotati were friends of the Earth, and the Skrulls as well as the Krees really weren't.

Fact: Swordman and Sequoia were part of the Avengers, one because he had been one, the other because he was the first child born to an Avenger that everyone had known of since the very beginning, whereas Tanalth, Gla-ree and the Superskrull were the exact contrary to that, longtime enemies of the Earth – and each other – with a personal history that definitely warranted caution.

Fact: the Kree-Skrull alliance was attacking a people their respective races had already, once, been at odds with – the Kree had once almost eradicated the Cotati, and the Skrulls had acted the good old colonial empire way and caused it all, no matter their actual intention back then.

Fact: Teddy Altman had himself admitted to being only a figurehead, heavily counseled by Tanalth, Gla-ree and the Superskrull – see fact number 2.

Fact: Tony had some personal and rather painful history with the Cotati through his past brainwashing by Immortus, which led to reason that he had some knowledge on the matter.

Fact: a Cotati may have killed a Skrull and a Kree recently, but you did not judge an entire people by the deeds of one individual who wasn't even there, whereas the Krees and the Skrulls were being led by three individuals who, them, had enough red in their ledgers to warrant suspicion – again, see fact number 2.

Fact: whether you knew the whole story or not, you didn't let an entire race be annihilated.

Fact: Teddy Altman himself, figurehead or not, hadn't been much forthcoming about what was going to happen. He'd brought his entire army to the moon, in Earth-space, without calling ahead, or letting anyone have the time to react accordingly.

Trusting the Cotati over the Alliance had been the logical choice.

Now, of course telling someone else – Alpha Flight, for example – might have been a good idea anyway, because whoever the bad guy was here, Cotati or Alliance, things could easily degenerate.

Except, how many times had telling a third party only brought more hostility to the board, in Tony's history? Someone who would waltz in, and make everything worse?

(How many times had Tony been reviled for wanting a better system – one in which a chain of intel was the norm, but no, that was too close to what SHRA entailed, wasn't it? One in which several people kept each other in the loop, even if there was no formal group known to all, but no, that was too secret of the Illuminati, wasn't it?)

The early warning system in place wasn't efficient enough – as evidenced both by the lack of communication on the heroes' part, and the general approach of Earth's specialized organizations to an extraterrestrial threat looming in. And yet, whenever Tony had proposed something else – because Tony, unlike Reed, lived in the world, moved with it and made it move with him – it had been – not good enough.

Reed blinked, his eyes on the work he'd done so far – he needed to wait for the results, now, so he might as well think about his friend, even if he knew well enough that he would find no idea to make Tony feel better. Maybe...

Maybe he should go and search for Tony. Just to check up on him. Maybe to make sure nothing had happened – that Tony hadn't happened, because in the end, Tony was the only one who'd ever managed to permanently harm himself.

Others killed him, and he found a way to walk up again. They ruined his heart, and he took the emergency peacemaker done on him into a piece of armor that let him live and move like no cardiac cripple should. They ruined his spin, and he made himself an artificial nervous system. They brainwashed him, and his past saved his future anyway. They injured him enough to warrant death, and he decided to adapt Extremis into making him a technopath.

But only Tony Stark could do to Tony Stark something which consequences would remain no matter what.

Evidence: Tony was still a recovering alcoholic.

Evidence: Tony had still not regained his memories from the Brain Delete.

(Evidence: they turned him into an evil version of himself, one who somehow still managed to want to save the world, even if without a care for the collateral damage, and when everyone else was turned back into themselves – which none of them, then, had wanted – he managed to evade it.)

No one destroyed Tony Stark better than Tony Stark himself. Mostly because Tony would always fight against anyone wanting to destroy him, but Tony himself did what he did for a reason – good or not – and it would be ludicrous to expect Tony Stark to fight himself on this.

Yes, Reed might need to go and check on Tony. In fact, he probably should have the moment Tony left – but Reed had never been good at that kind of things, so the fact he was thinking of it right now was probably good enough, if not the best.

Where could he be? Tony was Tony, so even if he left to be depressed elsewhere, he would probably still be – trying to – working somewhere. Most likely in his room, because if Reed knew anything about scientists in general and Tony in particular, it was that they didn't stop thinking just because they were in their bedroom. Sue had forbidden science experiments in their room, but Tony...

Well. Tony was alone. Had been for a long time.

(How long? Reed had no idea. Tony had had a lot of flames, but... How many of them had lived with him? He didn't think any of them had. Rumiko, maybe. If... If she'd lived long enough. But she hadn't.)

(Fact: Tony was alone.)

Fact: Tony was used to have his own workshop, because Avengers HQ used to be at his place. The mansion. The Works. The tower.

Fact: Avengers HQ wasn't Tony's, now. He had a lab, of course, but that was part of the common quarters, more or less. It wasn't his, not quite. If Tony wanted to isolate himself, he couldn't go to his lab, as evidenced by Reed's presence here.

Conclusion: Tony probably had half a functioning lab, at the very least, in his room.

Reed hesitated a moment – he had to wait for the results, of course, but he could still work on something else in the meantime. Tony's list of things to do was unrealistic – Reed, him, remembered SHRA, he remembered Tony's never-ending lists, and more than that, he remembered the fact that Tony still, somehow, managed to do more than half of it anyway, because it had to be done, and it was a fact.

(Fact: facts cared nothing for whether or not you could deal with them. If the multiverse was ending, and there was no good way to deal with it, facts cared not that you disagreed with them. Facts were facts. They didn't change for your sensibilities, and neither did they for your capacities.)

Anyway. Reed could work on one thing in that list, waiting for the analysis to end. He could.

But maybe he shouldn't.

Reed made a decision, then, and went to look for his friend.

And indeed, he found Tony taking notes in his room – notes about what? Reed had seen him work before, especially when he was too upset for it to work right, and Reed couldn't say it was a reassuring sight. When Tony couldn't work, he didn't imagine things that didn't work, no, he let in thoughts that might work with a little bit of a readjustment, but that no one, Tony included, wanted to work.

(Thoughts that could kill a world. Things that shouldn't be possible, not on a theoretical point of view, but on a moral plan. Ideas that were dangerous, that Tony had never let out before, because it was best if they stayed enclosed in his mind, where no one could go and steal the schematics – ideas which had to get out once, unless they started poisoning his mind.)

(What better be endangered? The world, or Tony himself?)

(Tony had the answer, of course.)

Tony swore at something on his screen, teeth gnashing, and Reed flinched away – almost left. But.

“Tony.”

His friend didn't answer right away.

Reed took a step closer, and stopped. He'd never really known where to stop, where was close enough, where was too much.

Tony took a deep breath, put his tablet down, and crossed his arms on his desk.

“I should have known this was wrong.”

“No one did.”

Reed saw Tony wince, turn his head around – towards Reed – as if to say something. Reevaluate.

Because this was Reed he was talking to, and for all that Reed wasn't quite neurotypical and therefore didn't think like Tony did on some things, Tony and Reed still thought alike on some other things that others didn't seem to understand.

“It felt right, Reed. I should have known something was fishy, because I never had any instincts.”

Instincts were good for staying alive, they said. The thing was, Reed had learned long ago that, for other people, people who worked on instincts and not analysis, both instincts and prejudices felt exactly the same: like you were right, of course, and there was no way to explain why, because it was just the way it was.

There was a reason prejudiced people clashed so hard with people who were in the right: both were convinced they were right, and most wouldn't let anything convince them otherwise. Not even facts.

“What do you mean, it felt right?”

Tony raised his head a bit, looked at Reed – not right in the eyes, just a little off, and Reed had learned to appreciate that, just as Tony had quickly caught on.

(Reed still remembered, the first time he met Tony Stark. Their fathers worked together, back then, and just the once, the children had ended up in the same room. Reed had been uneasy, because he didn't like meeting new people – he never knew what to make of them. Tony had... Tony hadn't been what you'd expect from a pampered young genius. Four years younger than Reed, he'd been polite – something Reed had never managed, because he didn't understand what it was that he was supposed to do – but closed off. He'd looked away as soon as he could, because... Reed hadn't understood. That wasn't how – other – people worked. So, instead of being in his own world, for once, he'd kept an eye on the child. Tried to make sense of him.)

(That was how he'd seen Tony sit down with a book on quantum physics, a notebook and a pencil. That was how he'd actually gotten to talk with Tony, over the actual applications – little things, not the things he usually thought about, because he was a theoretical scientist, but Tony, Tony saw the world for what it was and used everything he had to make it something else – of quantum physics theories.)

(Tony didn't like theoretical sciences that much, it turned out. It fascinated him, yes, but it also made him uneasy, because – unlike Reed – he knew how to link what the theories meant to what it implied for the world, for humanity, for everything Reed had a hard time understanding.)

Finally, Tony spoke.

“I... The moment we got there, in the garden... Everything was perfect. There was no technology, but it didn't matter. It's not like it made me hate technology, and all I am with it, it's just, it was alright. There was technology in other places, so it didn't matter that this was a place without. Like when you go on a vacation, and you leave your work behind, even if you love it.”

Reed blinked.

“You never leave your work behind, Tony. Not even on vacation.”

Tony gave him an – amused? – look, and didn't comment, probably because Tony wasn't like everyone else on that point – most heroes weren't, but Tony was probably worse – and Reed was even worse than Tony.

“Then think of a beautiful scenery, and how it's nothing like what we do for a living, and yet it's great anyway. That, but as a way of feeling the world around you. I don't mind if you don't see how that could be, it's weird even for me, and I lived it.”

Tony sighed, and started abusing his hands – not too hard, nothing like what Reed had seen him do so many times before, like what Reed had learned over time meant trouble, the engineer who wanted to do something with his hands and had to stop himself before he made a death ray.

“That's why I should have known. I don't feel that. Ever. I look everywhere, and while it's beautiful, I still question. What are the facts? How does it work? Is there something hidden? Is what is hidden a problem, or simply something private? How much do I ask? And if something tells me everything is alright, it's probably evil and trying to control my brain.”

Spoken from experience, of course. Reed hadn't been there for Tony's most dangerous brush with mind control – he was secretly glad for it, in a weird way; Reed had always been bad at evaluating people, and he wouldn't have picked up on anything weird unless he had facts.

(Fact: Tony was very good at hiding facts, when he really needed – not wanted, needed – to.)

Fact: all known facts pertaining to the situation with the Cotati had placed them as the ones to be trusted over the Kree/Skrull alliance.

Fact: everyone had agreed on that, even if some – Captain Marvel, and, to an extent Reed and Sue, but they had been looking on from the other side so it wasn't the same – had had reserves as to what had to be done. Everyone had agreed that the alliance was less trustworthy than the Cotati.

“Tony, listen. The facts were with us. I could make you a list, and it would still say that. From experience, from knowledge, from patterns of behavior, you were right. We all were. No one can expect us to make decisions from a vacuum, so we took the right decisions according to what we knew. In fact, if we'd taken another decision, like, say, to let the Alliance enslave the Cotati, based on absolutely nothing, would you still call it the right choice?”

Tony snorted, and stood up. Reed wasn't sure what that meant.

Were they going to go back to the lab, to go back to work?

If only it didn't let Tony alone, then that was alright. Even if Reed was uncomfortable being with other people too much, Tony was worth it. And when Tony wasn't unable to work right, when he worked normally, when he wasn't throwing things, Reed didn't mind his presence. Tony knew when to speak up, and when to work in companionable silence, even when Reed didn't.

As they started walking back, Tony spoke up again – perhaps in answer to Reed's question.

“Is Captain America right when he does something completely insane, with a flawed, simplistic reasoning, and yet still somehow ends up being right because it turns out villains were hidden in the shadows and no one, him included, knew about it?”

Reed had the uncomfortable feeling that the answer, for Tony, was “yes”. Because that was what people always told him. That he was wrong for looking at the facts, and not following his “instinct”.

Which was ridiculous. Gut feelings, in the end, were indistinguishable from prejudice.

And some people, like Reed, like Tony, had none – they'd learned too soon, perhaps, that instincts weren't precise enough. Someone might be lying, but how did you know if they were lying to you, to everyone, because it was private, because it was dangerous? Maybe what they weren't telling you wasn't earth-shattering. Maybe they just didn't want you to know they hadn't tidied up their room – that had been something he'd learned with Franklin, and Sue hadn't been happy with him when she'd found him interrogating their son for lying, and it turned out to be “just that”.

Tony was Tony Stark, Reed knew, and that meant there had always been something that went unsaid. How could you have instincts as to who to trust, when you could tell everyone was keeping things close to their chest?

So Reed answered with another question.

“Is Doctor Doom a good person, if he does something and it turns out to be good for everyone, but he meant it to be the other way?”

Tony stopped in his tracks, and looked at him sideways, with a – weird – little smile – but Reed still struggled with smiles, so. It could be amused, or pained. He didn't know.

“Did you know I was almost friend with Victor, for, like, ten minutes, last year?”

“He was doing better, for a moment.”

And for a moment, Reed – Tony, too – had almost hoped. Victor had really been trying.

Tony's problem wasn't that he didn't think, that he didn't look at the facts, that he was blind, that he was arrogant. Tony, just like Reed, just like most of the scientists and other men of knowledge amongst the superhero community, relied on the facts.

And as always, the facts had betrayed him.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you don't get it: saying that Steve was wrong about something does not equate with saying Tony is automatically right in return.
> 
> Also, why do I write that SIM!Tony still wanted to save the world? Because while he obviously doesn't give a damn about collateral damage, while he indulges and indulges and indulges, we also know he was jailed by the Cabale after he confronted them on a world they were going to blow up. His fight against old!Steve at the end isn't actually a stand, it's just a "look we're all going to die anyway, we could as well just do what we've always wanted to do, bash each other head in!".  
> More on that in another fic if I ever get around to writing it.


End file.
